SCHIPs Ahoy

From the Family Research Council.

“The tradition of using children for political gain dates back to when the first politician kissed a baby. Last night the House of Representatives passed legislation that vastly expands the federal “children’s” health insurance program, SCHIP. Unfortunately, the costs to taxpayers and society have never been higher. “This is the children’s hour,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) proclaimed last night. It will be a very expensive hour. This legislation has an estimated minimum cost of $300 billion taxpayer dollars over the next 10 years. Most important, its expansion represents a direct attack on private insurance, pushing Americans closer to what many Democratic leaders have long advocated–government-run, taxpayer-funded, universal health care, managed with the same efficiency and customer care as your local DMV. The version of the bill that was passed last night also eliminated unborn children as distinctly eligible for coverage. This was consciously done by the liberal authors of the bill as payoff to one of their biggest supporters–Planned Parenthood. Hopefully, the Senate will vote today on an amendment to SCHIP, offered by Senator Wayne Allard (R-Colo.), “to codify the unborn child rule” into U.S. law. The irony of how a bill once designed to save children could now be twisted to incentivize killing them should not be lost on anyone.”